This application claims the benefit of Japanese Application No. 2001-356493 filed in Japan on Nov. 21, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera including a focal-plane shutter and a stroboscopic unit disposed in an aperture of the focal-plane shutter to repeatedly provide a weak intensity light intermittently emitted in a certain period.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various cameras including such a stroboscopic unit disposed in an aperture of the focal-plane shutter to repeatedly provide a weak intensity light intermittently emitted in a certain period, that is, the so called stroboscopic unit capable of providing a flat light emission, have already been proposed.
Such a stroboscopic unit capable of providing a flat light emission is occasionally heated up to a high temperature when an excessive load is applied to switching elements, for instance, such as insulating gate driving transistors which are used to control a current for triggering a xenon lamp (hereinafter briefly denoted as an Xe lamp). An increase in the temperature over a tolerable limit for the switching elements causes the switching elements to be broken down. In particular, such a switching element often breaks down due to an increased temperature in the so-called repeat photographing mode where the photograph operation is continuously repeated.
In order to suppress such an increase in the temperature of the switching elements during the flat light emission of the stroboscopic unit, a method for restricting the time interval of flat light emission using heat sensing means has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 10-206941.
If, however, the time interval of the flat light emission is limited by the heat sensing means in the case of the stroboscopic unit being heated beyond a predetermined temperature, there is a possibility that a user misses an optimum shutter chance. Otherwise, he is concerned about a possible trouble of the camera.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a camera including a stroboscopic unit, wherein a photographing can sequentially be made without missing a shutter chance, and further switching elements for controlling the current of an Xe lamp or Xe light-emitting tube can be prevented from breaking down due to heat.
In an aspect of the invention, a camera including a stroboscopic light emission unit capable of operating at least in an intermittent light emission mode is provided, wherein the camera comprises a photographing mode setting unit for setting the camera either in a single photographing mode or in a sequential photographing mode, and a light emission period setting unit for setting the period of the intermittent light emission for the stroboscopic light emission unit in accordance with the photographing mode set in the photographing mode setting unit.
Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.